Receding rivers cause havoc in Bangladesh as flood toll reaches 195

Dhaka (dpa) - Receding rivers caused fresh havoc in Bangladesh triggering widespread mudslides as the death toll from tropical floods reached 195 with at least a million people forced to abandon their homes and farming jobs, local officials said Sunday.

As the floods started easing in northern Bangladesh at the weekend, with the fall in the water level in the Brahmaputra river, thousands of mudwalled homes were swept away by the receding currents.

Local flood relief agencies in the worst hit Kurigram and Lalmonirhat districts said at least 15 people had been drowned in the turbulent waters when their river-front homes were destroyed by mudslides in the past two days.

The Flood Warning Centre in the capital Dhaka said recession in the major river Ganges significantly improved the flood situation in the central region. The centre, however, also forecast more destruction of homes, rice farms and vegetation as the river erodes its banks.

Disaster management officials said more than 450 families, whose homes were devastated by the mudslides caused by the Ganges in Munshiganj district, were evacuated to flood shelters overnight.

The Meghna, one of the swiftest rivers in the world, rendered more than a thousand families homeless in Mehendiganj subdistrict in the southern Barisal region.

"The rate at which the Meghna is devouring lands soon there will be nothing left of the coconut palm fringed fertile Mehendiganj,'' said Helaluddin Howlader, the area's top civilian administrator.

Seasonal floods triggered by monsoon rains and mountain torrents from across the border in India have displaced more than five million people in Bangladesh over the past month.

Bangladeshi rivers frequently shift their course by eroding banks - a natural process which usually gains momentum after a deluge.

dpa af cu AP-NY-07-27-03 0642EDT

Copyright (c) 2003 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 07/27/2003 06:42:56